Celtic gained their fourth win of the season against Dundee United but look
likely to lose Craig Burley for the Scottish Cup final.
Burley was stretchered off with suspected cartilage and medial ligament damage
after half-an-hour.
And the Scottish international midfielder is a big doubt for next Saturday's
Hampden Park clash with Rangers.
Scotland boss Craig Brown will also be anxiously awaiting the news on Burley
with two important international ties looming.
The Parkhead side were without the injured Mark Viduka and Henrik Larsson and
Paul Lambert were rested.
Now Celtic boss Jozef Venglos must be wishing he had added Burley to that
list.
A huge consolation for Celtic was the first appearance since February of
Lubomir Moravcik and he produced a superb performance.
Mark Burchill staked his claim for a cup final place after a quickfire
first-half double and things could be a lot worse for the Bhoys.
They totally outclassed their hosts for whom Stuart Dougal's final whistle
must have been sweet music after such a dreadful season.
The only bright spot for the home crowd - apart from Billy Dodds' penalty -
was a six-minute appearance by departing keeper Sieb Dykstra .
Celtic made the early running and Burchill saw his angled shot well saved
by Alan Combe after only three minutes.
A minute later United came close when David Worrell swung in a cross for
Steven Thompson to glance a header which was touched away at the last minute by
Jonathan Gould.
In the sixth minute a Johan Mjallby miss-hit gave Burchill another chance but
he shot over the bar from 10 yards.
The visitors continued to dominate but were almost shocked in the 33rd minute
when it required another brilliant save by Gould from Thompson's 16-yard
volley.
This obviously stung the visitors and they went ahead when Burchill
dispossessed Scott McCulloch before shooting past Combe at his near post.
One minute later the youngster made it two with a near-post head-flick from
Moravcik's free-kick.
The Slovakian then had another two chances as half-time approached but his
on-target shots were both saved by the home keeper.
The second period was not nearly as exciting as the first but United got back
into the game after Thompson was brought down by Mjallby and Dodds took the
chance to score his 17th goal of the season from the penalty spot.
As the game approached full-time two terrific saves by Combe kept the score at
a respectable level with a stop from a point-blank Morten Wieghorst header and a
fierce 25-yarder from Tommy Johnson.
The last minutes were enlivened by Dykstra's appearance and the game finished
on a happy note for most of the fans with Celtic looking forward to Saturday and
United's glad that they would not have to suffer any more this season.
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